Opportunities and Challenges for Worldwide Igaming Suppliers in 2015

Across the world, the online gaming industry is gaining more and more popularity among consumers. Online gaming and betting is happening worldwide, and governments are faced with deciding whether they should protect consumers and allow igaming suppliers and online gaming companies to legally provide gaming products, or to allow revenues to go to unlicensed operators.

At this point in time, several governments are faced with severe fiscal constraints, and their attention is starting to be redirected towards the benefits that licensed online casinos could bring. This industry could become an important source of revenue for jurisdictions where online unregulated gaming is already happening anyway.

Igaming suppliers and online casino developers will follow different approaches regarding the latest trends and regulations starting with 2015. According to a report issued by PwC, regulation will continue to evolve on a global scale, as lawmakers will push for allowing casino gaming in order to create potential revenue stream for the state’s coffers. More than that, the United States and the European Union would soon allow a unique regulation across borders. On the other hand, the Asia Pacific area and Latin America are not expected to follow these steps soon.

In the United States, it is expected that social networking sites will become some of the most important sources of online gaming. Igaming suppliers and online gaming operators are starting to consider social gaming in order to make a difference to the US online gaming industry. Gaming brands and social networks are expected to collaborate in order to offer internet gaming to consumers who live in states where online casino gaming is not yet allowed. Facebook gaming is one of the biggest opportunities that igaming suppliers can provide, taking into consideration that online table games are still outlawed in the US. Lotteries are expected to become more popular in the US, especially through interstate collaboration and online gaming liquidity pooling.

Latin America is expected to remain influenced by the local cultural factors: poker will remain popular in Chile and bingo will still be played a lot in Argentina. On the other hand, online gaming in Latin America is still restricted in many countries.

Igaming suppliers and online gaming and betting operators who want to provide services to Canadian residents are allowed to run their businesses from outside the country. Interstate collaboration is expected to grow in the next few years, the government intending to attract onshore and offshore providers.

The European Union would also follow the trend of starting multilateral agreements between countries, but operators would be required to obtain licenses from local regulatory bodies. More than that, operators would also be subject to taxation in the jurisdictions where their licenses were issued. PwC explains that online sports betting will also gain a lot of popularity, especially across borders, and lotteries will also grow.

In Asia, online gaming will most probably remain illegal in the majority of jurisdictions, except the Philippines and several state-level markets in India. This will leave igaming suppliers with a limited amount of opportunities in the Asia Pacific region, but operators who want to start an online casino licensed in the Philippines should know that this jurisdiction provides a unique and highly valuable gaming license, thanks to the high-speed internet and state of the art infrastructure. More than that, companies who want to start land-based casinos should look forward to the creation of a new legislation that could allow casino establishments in Japan by 2020, when the Summer Olympic Games will take place.

Like so, operators might be interested in looking forward towards all gambling segments and formats, as online casino gaming is expanding rapidly almost everywhere. The world is in for some new changes in 2015, and participants of the online gambling scene should take advantage of these opportunities to expand their businesses and increase their revenue.